Budget: Chancellor says coronavirus will be ‘front and centre’ as PM wishes minister speedy recovery
This morning’s Cabinet meeting was dominated by a debate around coronavirus, after it emerged overnight that a health minister had tested positive.
Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries, who is a health minister, revealed she had the disease but was “over the worst of it”. She raised concerns about her elderly mother who “began with the cough” yesterday.
This morning’s Cabinet received an update on the outbreak from health secretary Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson, who wished Dorries “a speedy recovery, noting that she was following official advice to self-isolate”.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell is also self-isolating following a meeting with Dorries.
During the Cabinet meeting, chancellor Rishi Sunak set out the measures being taken to manage the impact of coronavirus, as well as his economic action plan that will be announced this afternoon.
Sunak, who has been in place for slightly less than a month, told other Cabinet ministers that while coronavirus was “front and centre in our minds”, the Budget would “implement the manifesto on which the government had been elected”.
Coronavirus would not delay “laying the foundations for a decade of growth where opportunity was spread equally across the UK,” he added.
“He outlined how this plan – combined with the measures announced by the Governor of the Bank of England this morning– will make the UK one of the best placed economies in the world to manage the potential impact of the virus”, a Number 10 spokesman said.
“The chancellor added the Budget will ensure businesses, the public and those in public services working on the front line against the virus get the support they need. He said despite the impacts of the outbreak being uncertain, we have the economic tools to overcome the disruption caused by the virus and move the country forwards.”